IN-LB Inch-Pound Units

SI International System of Units

An ACI Standard

Code Requirements for

Seismic Analysis and
Design of Liquid-Containing
Concrete Structures
(ACI 350.3-20) and
Commentary
Reported by ACI Committee 350
ACI 350.3-20
 First Printing
October 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64195-161-6

Code Requirements for Seismic Analysis and Design of Liquid-Containing Concrete

Structures (ACI 350.3-20) and Commentary
Copyright by the American Concrete Institute, Farmington Hills, MI. All rights reserved. This material
may not be reproduced or copied, in whole or part, in any printed, mechanical, electronic, film, or other
distribution and storage media, without the written consent of ACI.

The technical committees responsible for ACI committee reports and standards strive to avoid
ambiguities, omissions, and errors in these documents. In spite of these efforts, the users of ACI
documents occasionally find information or requirements that may be subject to more than one
interpretation or may be incomplete or incorrect. Users who have suggestions for the improvement of
ACI documents are requested to contact ACI via the errata website at http://concrete.org/Publications/
DocumentErrata.aspx. Proper use of this document includes periodically checking for errata for the most
up-to-date revisions.

ACI committee documents are intended for the use of individuals who are competent to evaluate the
significance and limitations of its content and recommendations and who will accept responsibility for
the application of the material it contains. Individuals who use this publication in any way assume all
risk and accept total responsibility for the application and use of this information.

All information in this publication is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, either express or
implied, including but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular
purpose or non-infringement.

ACI and its members disclaim liability for damages of any kind, including any special, indirect, incidental,
or consequential damages, including without limitation, lost revenues or lost profits, which may result
from the use of this publication.

It is the responsibility of the user of this document to establish health and safety practices appropriate
to the specific circumstances involved with its use. ACI does not make any representations with regard
to health and safety issues and the use of this document. The user must determine the applicability of
all regulatory limitations before applying the document and must comply with all applicable laws and
regulations, including but not limited to, United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration
(OSHA) health and safety standards.

Participation by governmental representatives in the work of the American Concrete Institute and in
the development of Institute standards does not constitute governmental endorsement of ACI or the
standards that it develops.

Order information: ACI documents are available in print, by download, through electronic subscription,
or reprint and may be obtained by contacting ACI.

Most ACI standards and committee reports are gathered together in the annually revised the ACI
Collection of Concrete Codes, Specifications, and Practices.

American Concrete Institute

38800 Country Club Drive
Farmington Hills, MI 48331
Phone: +1.248.848.3700
Fax: +1.248.848.3701
www.concrete.org
 ACI 350.3-20

Code Requirements for Seismic Analysis and

Design of Liquid-Containing Concrete Structures
(ACI 350.3-20) and Commentary
An ACI Standard

Reported by Joint ACI Committee 350

M. Reza Kianoush,* Chair Jon B. Ardahl, Vice Chair Andrew R. Minogue,‡ Secretary

Iyad M. Alsamsam Anthony J. Galterio* Khalid Motiwala Shashiprakash G. Surali

John W. Baker Carl A. Gentry* Jerry Parnes Lawrence M. Tabat*
Chuen-Shiow Chen* Kenneth Ryan Harvey Risto Protic* John M. Tehaney*
Steven R. Close* Keith W. Jacobson Satish K. Sachdev Miroslav Vejvoda
Mark W. Cunningham Edwina S. Lui William C. Sherman† William A. Wallace
Robert E. Doyle Daniel J. McCarthy Manwendra Sinha Jeffrey S. Ward
Ronald R. Fiore Kevin H. Monroe* Pericles C. Stivaros

Subcommittee Members
Ahmed Hafez Sanjay S. Mehta Nazar Sabti
Atis A. Liepins Rolf P. Pawski

Consulting Members
William H. Backouse David G. Kittridge Lawrence G. Mrazek David M. Rogowsky
Patrick J. Creegan Dennis C. Kohl Javeed Munshi Lawrence J. Valentine
Anthony L. Felder Nicholas A. Legatos Terry Patzias
Charles S. Hanskat Kyle S. Loyd Andrew R. Philip
Jerry A. Holland Carl H. Moon Narayan M. Prachand
Members of Seismic Provisions Subcommittee.
*

Seismic Provisions Subcommittee Chair.

†

Seismic Provisions Subcommittee Secretary.

‡

This Code prescribes procedures for the seismic analysis and Keywords: circular tanks; concrete tanks; convective component; earth-
design of liquid-containing concrete structures. These procedures quake resistance; environmental concrete structures; impulsive component;
address the loading side of seismic design and are intended to liquid-containing structures; rectangular tanks; seismic resistance; sloshing;
complement Section 1.1.9 and Chapter 13 of ACI 350-20. storage tanks.

ACI Committee Reports, Guides, and Commentaries are

intended for guidance in planning, designing, executing, and
inspecting construction. This document is intended for the use
of individuals who are competent to evaluate the significance
and limitations of its content and recommendations and who
will accept responsibility for the application of the material it
contains. The American Concrete Institute disclaims any and
all responsibility for the stated principles. The Institute shall
not be liable for any loss or damage arising therefrom. ACI 350.3R-20 supersedes 350.3-06, became effective November 20, 2020, and
was published October 2021.
Reference to this document shall not be made in contract
Copyright © 2021, American Concrete Institute.
documents. If items found in this document are desired by All rights reserved including rights of reproduction and use in any form or by
the Architect/Engineer to be a part of the contract documents, any means, including the making of copies by any photo process, or by electronic
they shall be restated in mandatory language for incorporation or mechanical device, printed, written, or oral, or recording for sound or visual
by the Architect/Engineer. reproduction or for use in any knowledge or retrieval system or device, unless
permission in writing is obtained from the copyright proprietors.

1
2 SEISMIC ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF LIQUID-CONTAINING CONCRETE STRUCTURES (ACI 350.3-20)

PREFACE
From the time it embarked on the task of developing an ACI 318-dependent code, ACI Committee 350 decided to expand on
and supplement the seismic provisions for “Special Provisions for Seismic Design” to provide a set of thorough and compre-
hensive procedures for the seismic analysis and design of commonly used types of liquid-containing structures of circular and
rectangular configurations. The committee’s decision was influenced by the recognition that liquid-containing structures are
unique structures whose seismic design is not adequately covered by the leading national codes and standards. A seismic design
subcommittee was appointed with the charge to implement the committee’s decision.
The seismic subcommittee’s work was guided by two main objectives:
(1) Produce a self-contained set of procedures that would enable a practicing engineer to perform a full seismic analysis and
design of a liquid-containing structure. These procedures should cover both aspects of seismic design: the “loading side,”
which is the determination of the seismic loads based on the mapped risk-adjusted maximum considered earthquake spec-
tral response accelerations at short periods (Ss) and 1 second (S1) obtained from the Seismic Ground Motion maps (ASCE/
SEI 7-16 Chapter 22) and the geometry of the structure; and the “resistance side,” which is the detailed design of the structure
in accordance with the provisions of ACI 350-20, to resist those loads safely.
(2) Establish the scope of the new procedures consistent with the overall scope of ACI 350-20. This required the inclusion of
all types of tanks—rectangular as well as circular; and reinforced concrete as well as prestressed.
There are currently at least two national standards that provide detailed procedures for the seismic analysis and design of
liquid-containing structures: ANSI/AWWA D110-13 (R18), which is limited to circular, prestressed concrete tanks; and ANSI/
AWWA D115-17, which covers both rectangular and circular prestressed concrete tanks.
As the loading side of seismic design is outside the scope of ACI 318, it was decided to maintain this practice in ACI 350
as well. Accordingly, the basic scope, format, and mandatory language of Chapter 21 of ACI 318-11 were retained with only
enough revisions to adapt the seismic provisions to environmental engineering structures. Provisions similar to Section 1.1.9 of
ACI 318-11 are included in ACI 350. This approach offers at least two advantages:
(1) Allows ACI 350 to maintain the ACI 318 practice of limiting its seismic design provisions to the resistance side only.
(2) Makes it easier to update these seismic provisions to keep up with the frequent changes and improvements in the field of
seismic hazard analysis and evaluation.
The forces due to earthquake determined in accordance with this Code are intended to be used in the determination of load
effects due to earthquake, E, in accordance with Chapter 9 of ACI 350-20. The seismic force levels and R-factors included in
this Code provide results at strength levels, such as those included for seismic design in the International Code Council (ICC)
2012 International Building Code (IBC 2012), particularly the applicable connection provisions of IBC 2012 as referenced in
ASCE/SEI 7-16. When comparing these provisions with other documents defining seismic forces at allowable stress levels (for
example, the 1997 Uniform Building Code [UBC-1997]), the seismic forces in this Code should be reduced by the applicable
factors to derive comparable forces at allowable stress levels.
Users should note the following general design methods used in this Code, which represent the evolution of seismic design
of liquid-containing structures over a number of years since ASCE (1984), as follows:
(a) Instead of assuming a rigid tank for which the acceleration is equal to the ground acceleration at all locations, this Code
assumes amplification of response due to natural frequency of the tank.
(b) The response modification factor is included.
(c) Rather than combining impulsive and convective modes by algebraic sum, this Code combines these modes by
square-root-sum-of-the-squares.
(d) The effects of vertical acceleration are included.
(e) An effective mass coefficient applicable to the mass of the walls is included.
For further information on seismic behavior of liquid-containing structures, refer to Housner (1957, 1963b). For fluids other
than water, refer to Veletsos and Shivakumar (1997).

American Concrete Institute Copyrighted Material—www.concrete.org

 SEISMIC ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF LIQUID-CONTAINING CONCRETE STRUCTURES (ACI 350.3-20)  3

CONTENTS CHAPTER 6—STRESSES, p. 26

6.1—Rectangular tanks, p. 26
PREFACE, p. 2 6.2—Circular tanks, p. 26

CHAPTER 1—GENERAL REQUIREMENTS, p. 4 CHAPTER 7—FREEBOARD, p. 27

1.1—Scope, p. 4 7.1—Wave oscillation, p. 27
1.2—Notation, p. 4
1.3—Definitions, p. 10 CHAPTER 8–EARTHQUAKE-INDUCED EARTH
PRESSURES, p. 32
CHAPTER 2—TYPES OF LIQUID-CONTAINING 8.1—General, p. 32
STRUCTURES, p. 11 8.2—Limitations, p. 33
2.1—Ground-supported structures, p. 11 8.3—Alternative methods, p. 33
2.2—Pedestal-mounted structures, p. 12
CHAPTER 9—DYNAMIC MODEL, p. 34
CHAPTER 3—GENERAL CRITERIA FOR ANALYSIS 9.1—General, p. 34
AND DESIGN, p. 13 9.2—Rectangular tanks (Type 1), p. 36
3.1—Dynamic characteristics, p. 13 9.3—Circular tanks (Type 2), p. 40
3.2—Design loads, p. 13 9.4—Seismic response coefficients Ci, Cc, and Ct, p. 44
3.3—Design requirements, p. 13 9.5—Site-specific seismic response coefficients Ci, Cc,
and Ct, p. 45
CHAPTER 4—EARTHQUAKE DESIGN LOADS, p. 14 9.6—Effective mass coefficient ε, p. 46
4.1—Earthquake pressures above base of tank wall, p. 14 9.7—Pedestal-mounted tanks, p. 46
4.2—Application of site-specific response spectra, p. 17
CHAPTER 10—COMMENTARY REFERENCES, p. 47
CHAPTER 5—EARTHQUAKE LOAD
DISTRIBUTION, p. 19 APPENDIX A—DESIGN METHOD, p. 49
5.1—General, p. 19 A.1—General outline of design method, p. 49
5.2—Shear transfer, p. 19
5.3—Dynamic force distribution above base of tank wall,
p. 21

American Concrete Institute Copyrighted Material—www.concrete.org

4 SEISMIC ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF LIQUID-CONTAINING CONCRETE STRUCTURES (ACI 350.3-20)

CODE COMMENTARY
CHAPTER 1—GENERAL REQUIREMENTS CHAPTER R1—GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

1.1—Scope R1.1—Scope
This Code describes procedures for the design of This Code is a companion Code to Chapter 13 of the
liquid-containing concrete structures subjected to seismic American Concrete Institute, “Code Requirements for Envi-
loads. These procedures shall be used in accordance with ronmental Engineering Concrete Structures (ACI 350-20)
Chapter 13 of ACI 350-20. and Commentary (ACI 350R-20).”
This Code provides requirements for the designer of liquid-
containing concrete structures for computing seismic forces
that are to be applied to the particular structure. The designer
should also consider the effects of seismic forces on compo-
nents outside the scope of this Code, such as piping, equipment
(for example, clarifier mechanisms) and connecting walkways
where vertical or horizontal movements between adjoining
structures or surrounding backfill could adversely influence
the ability of the structure to function properly (NSF 1981).
Moreover, seismic forces applied at the interface of piping or
walkways with the structure may also introduce appreciable
flexural or shear stresses at these connections.
The hydrodynamic forces described in ACI 350.3 can be
used in design of liquid-containing concrete structures other
than environmental structures if the licensed design profes-
sional or another reference standard chooses to use or refer
to it.
The operational conditions used to calculate the seismic
forces determined by this Code need to be evaluated by the
licensed design professional. Considerations such as normal
operational liquid levels, and potential for a tank or cells
within a tank to be empty during a seismic event should be
included. It is common to consider several loading condi-
tions when designing for seismic loading, such as with the
liquid at normal operating levels and with the tank or indi-
vidual tank cells empty.

1.2—Notation R1.2—Notation
As = cross-sectional area of prestressed and non-
prestressed steel reinforcement, in.2 (mm2)
b = ratio of vertical to horizontal design
acceleration
B = inside dimension (length or width) of a rect-
angular tank, perpendicular to the direction of
the ground motion being investigated, ft (m)
Cc, Ci, and Ct = period-dependent seismic response coeffi-
cients (9.4, 9.5)
Cl, Cw = coefficients for determining the funda-
mental frequency of the tank-liquid system
(Eq. (9.3.4b) and Fig. 9.3.4b)
Cs = period-dependent seismic coefficient For Cs, refer to ASCE/SEI 7-16 Section 12.8.1.
dmax = maximum vertical displacement of an
oscillating wave measured from the liquid
surface at rest, ft (m)
D = inside diameter of circular tank, ft (m)
EBP = excluding base pressure (datum line just EBP refers to the hydrodynamic design in which it is
above the base of the tank wall) necessary to compute the overturning of the wall with
respect to the top of the tank floor, excluding base pres-
sure (that is, excluding the pressure on the floor itself). EBP

American Concrete Institute Copyrighted Material—www.concrete.org

 SEISMIC ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF LIQUID-CONTAINING CONCRETE STRUCTURES (ACI 350.3-20) 5

CODE COMMENTARY
hydrodynamic design is used to determine the need for hold-
downs in non-fixed base tanks. EBP is also used in deter-
mining the design pressure acting on walls. (For explana-
tion, refer to Housner [1963a].)
Ec = modulus of elasticity of concrete, psi (MPa)
Es = modulus of elasticity of cable, wire, strand,
or conventional reinforcement, psi (MPa)
Fa = short-period site coefficient (at 0.2 second
period) from ASCE/SEI 7-16 Table 11.4-1
Fv = long-period site coefficient (at 1.0 second
period) from ASCE 7-16, Table 11.4-2
Gp = shear modulus of elastomeric bearing pad,
psi (MPa)
G = acceleration due to gravity (32.17 ft/s2
[9.807 m/s2])
hc = height above the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the convective lateral
force for the case excluding base pressure
(EBP), ft (m)
hc′ = height above the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the convective lateral
force for the case including base pressure
(IBP), ft (m)
heg = height above the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the lateral force due to
the dynamic earth pressure, and from satu-
rated and unsaturated soils, ft (m)
hi = height above the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the impulsive lateral
force for the case excluding base pressure
(EBP), ft (m)
hi′ = height above the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the impulsive lateral
force for the case including base pressure
(IBP), ft (m)
h r = height from the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the tank roof, ft (m)
hw = height from the base of the tank wall to the
center of gravity of the tank shell, ft (m)
H = as defined in Section R9.2.4, ft (m)
H L = design depth of stored liquid, ft (m)
Hw = wall height above top of floor (inside
dimension), ft (m)
I = importance factor, from Table 4.1.1a
Ib = moment of inertia at the base of the tank
IBP = including base pressure (datum line at the IBP refers to the hydrodynamic design in which it is neces-
base of the tank wall including the effects sary to investigate the overturning of the entire structure
on the tank bottom including dynamic fluid with respect to the tank support foundation. IBP hydrody-
pressure on the tank bottom) namic design is used to determine the design pressure acting
on the tank floor and the underlying foundation. This pres-
sure is transferred directly either to the subgrade or to other
supporting structural elements. IBP accounts for moment
effects due to dynamic fluid pressures on the bottom of the
tank by increasing the effective vertical moment arm to the
applied lateral forces. (For explanation, refer to Housner
[1963a].)

American Concrete Institute Copyrighted Material—www.concrete.org

6 SEISMIC ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF LIQUID-CONTAINING CONCRETE STRUCTURES (ACI 350.3-20)

CODE COMMENTARY
ka = spring constant of the tank wall system,
lb/ft per foot of wall width (N/m per meter
of wall width)
khw = ratio of the saturated unit weight of the
backfill to the buoyant unit weight of the
backfill (khw = γs/γb], lb/ft3
K = flexural stiffness of a unit width of a recti-
linear tank wall, lb/ft per foot of wall width
(N/m per meter of wall width)
Ka = active coefficient of lateral earth pressure
Ko = coefficient of lateral earth pressure at rest
L = inside dimension of a rectangular tank,
parallel to the direction of the ground
motion being investigated, ft (m)
Lc = effective length of restraint cable taken as
the sleeve length plus 35 times the cable
diameter, in. (mm)
Lp = length of individual elastomeric bearing
pads, in. (mm)
mi = impulsive mass of contained liquid per unit
width of a rectangular tank wall, lb-s2/ft per
foot of wall width (kg per meter of wall width)
mw = mass per unit width of a rectangular tank
wall, lb-s2/ft per foot of wall width (kg per
meter of wall width)
M = total mass per unit width of a rectangular
wall = mi + mw, lb-s2/ft per foot of wall
width (kg per meter of wall width)
Mb = bending moment on the entire tank cross
section just above the base of the tank wall,
ft-lb (kN-m)
Mc = bending moment of the entire tank cross
section just above the base of the tank wall
(EBP) due to the convective force Pc, ft-lb
(kN-m)
Mc′ = overturning moment at the base of the tank
wall, including dynamic fluid pressure on
the tank bottom (IBP), due to the convec-
tive force Pc, ft-lb (kN-m)
Meg = bending moment of the entire tank cross
section just above the base of the tank wall
due to dynamic earth pressure and from
saturated and unsaturated soils, ft-lb (kN-m)
Mi = bending moment of the entire tank cross
section just above the base of the tank wall
(EBP) due to the impulsive force Pi, ft-lb
(kN-m)
Mi′ = overturning moment at the base of the tank
wall, including dynamic fluid pressure on
the tank bottom (IBP), due to the impulsive
force Pi, ft-lb (kN-m)
Mo = overturning moment at the base of the tank
wall, including dynamic fluid pressure on
the tank bottom (IBP), ft-lb (kN-m)
Mr = bending moment of the entire tank cross
section just above the base of the tank wall

American Concrete Institute Copyrighted Material—www.concrete.org